


bite the hand that feeds you

by magnoliias



Category: Warriors - Erin Hunter
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Gen, but the Clans are the campus cats!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-23
Updated: 2020-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-12 19:48:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22856170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magnoliias/pseuds/magnoliias
Summary: A small college campus in the United States is home to two feline civilizations.The Clan, with its rigid social structure and disdain of humans, lives on its own terms. Hunting traditionally and travelling in patrols to mark their borders, they live like their ancestors always have.The Scavengers, a tight-knit group of cats who aren't opposed to human offerings, occupy the same college campus. They mark borders to keep Clan cats off their turf, but they'll gladly take human food and affection.Clan cats and Scavengers have always lived separately, and with relative peace. Humans have always been the ones to complicate things, so it is no surprise when some... strange activity begins on campus to disturb everything.Where routine falls away, conflict begins... and it might just change the campus cats forever.
Kudos: 9





	1. prologue // a cold symbiosis

**Author's Note:**

> Hey y'all! I'm beginning this project on a mix of goldfish cracker energy and spontaneous inspiration. My college campus has a population of feral cats, and though I'm allergic to them, I'm inspired by their presence and resilience.
> 
> Friendly reminder that TNR-ing cats is good for the environment and the cat.

Long ago, the Clan held reign over the Tall Forests.

Thousands of moons have passed since then. The Clan's noble ancestors, the cats who walked the Tall Forests, still appear in soft-spoken nursery tales and in dreams and nightmares. Though the Clan tries to follow in their pawsteps as well as they can, a complication of the land transformed their way of living forever.

Humans stormed the Tall Forests with ease, bringing in monsters of terrifying proportion and flattening the Clan's precious land. They built a school on this land, with perfectly straight cobblestone pathways and buildings taller than any tree the Clan had ever seen. 

For years, the humans constructed and completed, until there was a final eerie silence upon the land. The Tall Forests had been stolen from the Clan, and all they had left was a choice.

They could move, leave the place their ancestors walked, abandon the history and the memories and the love and the war and the emotion that happened here.

Or... they could stay. Adapt.

And that is what they did. The Clan found a new campsite, made new dens, new nests, new homes. The summer months battered their willpower, but they pushed through for promise of a better life. Prey was scarce, but as time went on, it started coming back. Life started to resume for the Clan, and though they wished life was back to its original state, they knew it must have been StarClan's will.

Finally, the Clan could rest. A moon and a half of nonstop work, building dens in a secluded corner of the land protected by a curved human wall and numerous amounts of underbrush, had come to an end. Summer had been winding down, and though the heat stayed omnipresent, the sun started to set earlier and earlier, and its radiance died just a little bit more every day.

The Clan's medicine cat had finally replenished their stock, their leader had finally gotten all of the apprentices and mentors in order. It seemed as if everything could just... go back to how it was. With a few added obstacles, of course.

And then the humans returned.

Masses of them, all wearing strange lumps on their backs and walking quite fast. Most of them came in with older humans and large piles of what the Clan assumed to be their belongings. They occupied the grid-like buildings on the outskirts of the campus, and the commotion didn't cease until late at night when the last of the older humans departed.

The silence was deafening. The Clan's leader watched as, for the second time, everything they had known was ruined. The Clan camp was, apparently, situated in between two of these human-holders and another building they couldn't find the purpose of.

The next morning, humans practically poured out of the grid-like buildings and into the food-home.

The leader watched in pure disbelief as a smaller female human approached them, holding a little sliver of meat. She cooed at them, holding out the meat, and when she dropped it, the Clan leader snatched it and ran. They returned to camp immediately with the strange circular food and placed it in the middle of the clearing.

Shock rippled through the Clan. They had thought the humans were there to destroy them, to eradicate them, and then a human had given their leader a gift. Cats took turns sniffing it, but no one took a bite. No one dared.

The leader declared that night that no one should take from the humans. A debt cannot be repaid when the Clan has so little, they said, and the Clan agreed. Humans were to be avoided at all costs. And if a human might follow too far, violence might be needed to ward it away.

Generations passed of tension between the Clan and the humans. Tradition lived on that humans weren't to be trusted, that humans were evil, and that humans could destroy everything again just like they had hundreds of moons ago.

Then, a cat named Flowerstorm had a new idea.

She told not of the dangers of approaching humans, but of the opportunity that could come from it. There wouldn't have to be starvation in winter or hardship while prey was scarce. An alliance with the humans could be truly valuable, she preached, and the Clan should take advantage of it.

Her leader caught wind of these ideas and couldn't believe it. Humans were the very bane of the Clan's existence. They had destroyed their land and occupied their home and yet Flowerstorm dared to suggest an alliance?

Exile came swiftly for Flowerstorm and a few of her friends, for they agreed. Flower and her new deputy Laurel, as well as three others, scoured the land for anywhere to live where they could still be under the watchful gaze of their ancestors. Soon, a spot near the food-home became their camp, and a new identity formed among the rebels.

They would be called Scavengers, after the parting insult their former leader had spat at their paws as they left. They would be organized quite like their former home, but they would be freer, happier, and most importantly, allied with the humans.

Suddenly, a new tension between the Clan and the Scavengers arose. The Scavengers adopted passing rogues who wanted a home, while the Clan continued business as usual, if a bit more strict about their beliefs.

Borders needed marked, then. Without a single conversation, Flower and the Clan leader claimed land as they pleased until they were both satisfied with their earnings.

And life on campus continued. Every summer, the humans would leave for a couple of moons, then return again. The Clan and the Scavengers learned human schedules over time, predicting when there would be food offerings and when humans should be avoided.

This brings us to present.

The Clan continues to hunt like their ancestors did. They are organized, ambitious, and resilient, but they are afraid.

The Scavengers take food from humans and build relationships with their favorite ones. They are laid-back, compassionate, and flexible, but they are reckless.

All the while, the ancestors watch, with sublime knowledge no Clan cat and no Scavenger could dream of.

...

But peace never lasts, of course.


	2. the royal child's wonder

"Maple, there's no other choice. You're getting old. You need an heir, or you need to find a kit to pretend you had." The low, calming voice did nothing but anger Maple. The gray hairs around her muzzle told of many moons leading the Scavengers, but she never wanted to have kits. She hadn't needed to.  
  
Her fur, a beautiful mixture of browns, reds, and snowy white, stood on its end as she turned slowly to face her second-in-command. She knew he had the Scavengers' best interests in mind, and he was only doing his job, but she couldn't just let him speak to his leader like that.  
  
"You know damn well I'll have an heir," she spat, "I'll figure it out. Quit nagging me about it."  
  
Figure it out she did. The middle of winter kept days short, so during the quiet night, Maple silently produced an heir. One kit, a daughter, a blessing from the Stars themselves. Maple had fought hard for her, guiltily taking up much of the Scavengers' resources and praying the humans couldn't tell she was with kit. And... at last, Sparrow was born.  
  
Sparrow, like any Scavenger leader, would never know who her father was. She didn't need to, really. She'd be raised by all, the kit destined for greatness, the kit with the blood of Flower in her heart.  
  
"You will be great one day, my little Sparrow," Maple purred softly. "You will be perfect."  
  
  
\---  
  
  
Sparrow's very first day outside of camp was almost magical.  
  
Just like any Scavenger, she hadn't been let outside of the confines of camp until she was six moons old. She was given apprentice status, and a mentor, and an odd sense of freedom she'd never felt before. The territory seemed so large and so foreign, and yet she was destined to become its leader.  
  
An only kit of her mother, an aging cat named Maple, Sparrow found herself an heir to the Scavenger throne. Traditionally, power was passed down from mother to daughter, and Sparrow was the sole daughter of Maple. The lineage of leaders would continue, just as they needed to.  
  
  
\---  
  
  
Sparrow's childlike wonder radiated off of her like the summer heat off the stone paths. Lark, her new mentor, would be tasked with teaching this small child everything she needed to know to become leader one day. Though this was a daunting task, he knew it had to be done. He was chosen for a reason.  
  
"Lark! Lark! What's this over here?" Sparrow couldn't resist sniffing at every little thing. Her tail wiggled absentmindedly as she trotted over to a large tree surrounded by pavement and ledges, hopping up onto the stone and turning her head to look at her mentor. There was a little metal plate on a pole with some weird scratches on it. She was sure the humans knew what that meant.  
  
Lark's lack of enthusiasm saddened her, but she perked back up as he explained.  
  
"This is Lion's Tree." Sparrow's neck craned as she struggled to capture its entirety in her sight. "It's been here since the humans moved in. Who knows how many moons it has looked over us?"  
  
Birds and squirrels made this tree their homes, and Sparrow could spot nests in the furthest branches. They contained straw, pine needles, leaves, and most notably, some colorful strands of human materials. The leaves shook as the gentle summer's breeze wound through the branches, and the sun's rays baked the stone-laid ground where there were no leaves to devour them.  
  
The wonder on Sparrow's young face was clear as the day overhead. "Are there more of these trees? Where are they? Can we see them?" Sparrow practically hopped in place as she rapid-fired questions on her poor mentor. Lark took them in stride.  
  
"Two more, yes. But we can only see one as Scavengers. The other is in Clan territory, where we cannot go."  
  
Sparrow was disappointed, but excited nonetheless. She wanted to see all of them! "Okay! Which one can we go see? What's it called?" Her claws threatened to burrow into soil, but no claws were sharp enough to puncture stone.  
  
Snorting with amusement, Lark beckoned his apprentice with his tail. "Come along. It's on the way."  
  
  
\---  
  
  
"Woah..."  
  
Sparrow had never seen anything like it.  
  
Her ears flattened as she approached. She could kind of hear Lark describing the tree in the background, and caught its name in passing: the Wolf's Oak. She consciously shut her mouth, and checked that Lark hadn't seen her hypnotized by the power of this tree.  
  
The Wolf's Oak was a giant thing, older than time and taller than the clouds. Unlike the Lion's Tree, the Wolf's Oak towered above every other living thing around it. It had no pavement accessories, or stones to block its roots from conquering the underground. But a similar metal plate accompanied this tree, too.  
  
Just its size alone made Sparrow's heart soar. Lark had told her on the way that this was where the Gatherings used to occur. She had heard tales of them once; the Scavengers and the Clan were one, and every full moon, they would all gather under the Wolf's Oak and talk to the Stars. She wished she was there to see it, but that was generations ago.  
  
"... will be worried. The sun's setting quite soon, and you haven't lost a bit of energy." Sparrow jumped as Lark's voice came back into focus. She looked at him, and then at the darkening sky, and blinked. He was right, unfortunately.  
  
"Okay, well... let's go, then?" Sparrow didn't want to admit she'd completely forgotten the way home. The stone walkways felt more like a maze than an organized system, but like Lark had told her several times, she'd get used to it.  
  
"We're on the border. Camp is eastward." Lark's shortness kept Sparrow guessing, but as he started to pad towards the camp, she bounded past him. Her calico pelt shone against the bright summer grasses, and blended into the brown tones of the cobblestone paths. Though twilight fled quickly, dusk gave the two cats just enough light to arrive at camp before too long.  
  
Lark's tailtip flicked. "Goodnight, Sparrow. I'll be expecting you out here by dawn tomorrow. We have a long day ahead." With that, the older tom disappeared into the warriors' den, and Sparrow could only nod after him.  
  
The exhaustion of the day caught up with her, and with a flourish, Sparrow vanished into her mother's den. Maple was already asleep, she slept a lot these days, and Sparrow could do nothing but curl into the warmth of her mother's pelt. Eventually, she'd be forced to sleep in a separate nest, but until then, Sparrow took comfort in the closeness.  
  
Dreamless, Sparrow drifted away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> in a writing funk right now so this ain't as good as i wish it was, but here it is! further chapters will have a less omniscient POV, this was just me in the lore mindset tryna write something not lore-heavy lol


End file.
